[erulabs]

Not to be "that guy" but Anduril is Aragorn's sword and is the most good-guy good-thing that could ever be fantasized about. It's used to defeat Sauron. And the Palantir stones are not "the bad guys tool", they were made by the Elves in ancient history and a few of them wound up in the bad guys hands. Misread LOTR indeed!

[sallveburrpi]

I specifically referred to the witch kings surveillance artefacts with misreading. I don’t think their creation story is mentioned in LOTR, other than that they are extremely powerful and dangerous.

But you are right of course about Anduril and if you take the whole silmarillion as background. I never really liked that part though

[paulddraper]

The Palantiri were created by the Elves in Valinor and given to the high race of Men.

The witch-king could in theory have used a Palantir, but there’s no suggestion he did.

The seven stars in Gondor’s crest are the Palantari, and in the War of the Ring, Aragon specifically requested they be added to his banner. They represent the highest level of the civilization of Men.

[scsh]

Yes, but the elf who created them is quite a tragic character himself. To the extent that his own mother chose to die after giving birth because she knew how much sorrow he would eventually bring. So I'd be careful to not paint them as a good thing either.

[erulabs]

you're right, and definitely Palantir is a harder sell here. But to say "they named their weapons company Anduril, what are they, bad guys?" frustrates the nerd in me quite a lot.